Two talent trees for the price of one?
Ripped from the WWI Dev Q&A comes news that I think is, frankly, massively important for the future of World of Warcraft, At around 7:30 central european summer time, the following question and answer exchange tried to slip under the radar:
"7:34pm CEST: Q: Any plans to be able to switch between Talent specs easier?
A: We are working on a plan to give players access to two Talent specs. More details in the future."
Reread that. Because every time I read that passage, with a prot spec warrior as my main, I get ludicrously giddy. Two specs? Access to two specs? You mean I can go tank spec, and then switch to fury? Can I do this in an instance? If yes, holy heck.
The viability gets even more ridiculous for hybrid classes. Imagine if you arrive at a raid on your elemental shaman, only to discover that the raid is down a healer. You no longer have to go respec. You just throw on your healing gear (and with Universal Spellpower coming, you might not even have to switch gear) and you're good to go. Need another tank for one particular boss? The healing paladin has you covered. The flexibility for raiding this would allow is almost impossible to underestimate, and the freedom it brings for people to grind, quest, PvP or raid depending on what they want to do becomes mind-numbing. You would no longer have to worry as much about balancing all class' specs for PvP, PvE and soloing, since each character could have two specs to help them make the transition easier. "Well, I need to grind some primal ice for my Northern Hammer of Ragnarok, so I'll just switch to retribution for a few hours."
Of course, we have no idea what will actually be implemented beyond the statement that players will be given access to two Talent specs. How will they be given this access? How often can you switch between them? Is there a fee, or do you have to find a talent trainer for the switch? How on the fly is it, exactly? But it's still incredibly exciting news.
